Balsamic Spinach, Noodle, and Chicken Salad: Spring Recipe that Kids Love!

Chances are, if it has noodles, my kids will like to eat it. In an effort to incorporate healthy vegetables I combined spinach, carrots, celery, artichoke hearts and baked chicken with long spaghetti-style noodles, which you can chop into shorter pieces (makes the salad easier to toss). For vegetarians, substitute a good vegi-burger with the chicken, or marinate bite-size tofu in balsamic vinegar overnight (or for 2+ hours). I use my favorite balsamic homemade dressing with the salad. This meal satisfies all appetites as it combines a great protein source (chicken or tofu), carbs, and a great vegetable mix. I love making a salad as a dinner's main course, and this one is excellent. Even 1-year old Stella enjoyed the noodles and chicken, which we chopped small for her.

RECIPE: Balsamic Spinach, noodle, and Chicken (or Vegetarian) Salad, for a family or dinner party of 4-ish:

Pre-Preparation:
1. Use already baked chicken the equivalent of 2-4 chicken breasts, but any chicken will do, cut into bite-size pieces.
Or, for Vegetarians: marinate bite size (small squares) tofu in a pan of equal parts balsamic vinegar & olive oil, rolling the tofu in the marinate to cover all parts. I use the plain white firm tofu, for this recipe use a whole package.
2. Precook spaghetti noodles (a day or several hours ahead of time, you can even make them the day before for a different meal and use the leftovers for this recipe) . You can cut the noodles into smaller lengths if you desire, although we kept ours whole.

Vegetables:
6-8 cups of baby spinach washed and spinned in salad spinner
2 carrots, scrubbed and cut into small thin strips
2 celery, cut like the carrots
1/2 can of artichoke hearts, cut into bite size pieces

Mix the chicken, noodles, and vegetables in a nice big wooden bowl, toss with balsamic dressing, see recipe below. Start with less dressing (1-2 TBS) and add as needed. Because there is no lettuce, you can have this salad the next day and it will not be soggy. Yay!

Sweet Balsamic Dressing: this recipe makes enough for a long-term supply, for us it would last about a month. get the best quality balsamic vinegar you can afford (checkout: http://www.balsamicvinegar.com/uk/storia.asp) and mix:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
sugar to taste, I would use about 1 TBS for this amount.

Stir ingredients vigorously, or as I do it: put all ingredients in a salad dressing bottle with a sturdy lid and shake until sugar, oil and balsamic vinegar are mixed. You will need to shake or stir the dressing before you use it. It does not need to be refrigerated as vinegar keeps it fresh. If it is refrigerated the olive oil will harden, bummer.